Description

"Go everywhere and come to see me, okay?" Choosing to believe in the unprovable until the end. Jun is the one who taught Ire how vast and unnecessarily beautiful the world is. He shared stories of deserts, glaciers, oceans, and stars, and after posing difficult questions, he would say, "In the end, you have to think for yourself." Ire loved even that strangeness. However, one day, Jun disappears without saying goodbye. After a long time, news of Jun reaches Ire. Around that time, Solmin receives a suspicious phone call asking him to investigate the Blue Agnes nunnery, and unfamiliar people who seem to know about Jun's past appear before Ire. Events that seemed unrelated begin to point to the same secret. Ire's past contains blanks that even she does not know, and only Jun can explain those blanks. Eight years later, Ire and Solmin reunite and cross borders in search of Jun's traces. However, the moment they realize they are being followed, their journey veers off its planned course. On a path where it is impossible to discern whose words are true and whose kindness is a trap, Solmin grabs Ire's wrist, and Ire runs in the direction Solmin points. Ire chooses to trust people and move forward, while Solmin doubts all possibilities and filters out dangers. They clash repeatedly, but that very difference becomes the strength to continue their journey. As the two retrace Ire's lost time, a single secret gradually comes into focus. However, what awaits them at the end of the road is not an answer that perfectly restores the past, but a long time that one existence has lived as itself. When Jun's voice begins to be heard after a long silence, the story that was rushing forward sinks into the quiet deep sea. In "Olive Under the Sun," consciousness cannot escape from the material that constitutes it, nor can it skip time. To reach a distant future, one must live through that amount of time. The memories, sensations, love, and pain accumulated in the meantime make up the life of a unique existence that cannot be replicated. Thus, the consciousness formed is unique because it cannot be reproduced, and it knows sorrow because it is bound by time. Kim Cho-yeop presents the fascinating hypothesis that these constraints actually make consciousness possible. This thought experiment leads to the age-old question about the soul. Does the soul exist beyond matter? Or is it the only trace left by an existence inscribed in body and time? Regardless of which answer one chooses, the soul cannot be fully proven to others. What we can encounter is only the voice of a single existence that feels, remembers, and suffers. Kim Cho-yeop reveals that she wrote this novel while contemplating the act of ultimately choosing to believe that voice, even knowing it cannot be proven. In "Olive Under the Sun," faith is not about asserting the uncertain as fact. It is a choice to listen to the words of a suffering existence and not to turn away from that pain. "Life is a calculation that happens only once. The heart is bound by time, and time leaves irreversible traces on us at every moment." What makes us human? Asking the condition of humanity again from outside the boundary. At the beginning of "Olive Under the Sun," Ire sees an olive tree rooted in a strange land and thinks, "An olive that should not exist there." It is not a tree that originally grew there. However, the olive cannot choose where to be born. It turns out that it was there, and it lives on because it has already taken root. This olive tree is an image that runs through the entire work. Can we consider a life that has already begun as wrong simply because it did not belong there originally? This question soon leads to the lives of Ire and Jun. Ire has lost her memories before the accident and does not know how the material that constitutes her has changed. Jun is convinced that he has a heart, but there is no way to prove that fact to others. Nevertheless, they love, feel lonely, and suffer, choosing their remaining lives for themselves. Just because a being's way of being born or the condition of their body deviates from familiar standards, can we deny the time they have lived? This novel asks again what makes us human through their lives. Despite carrying such heavy questions, "Olive Under the Sun" is not a novel that remains in the realm of ideas. As Professor Kim Sang-wook from Kyung Hee University’s Department of Physics describes in his recommendation, this work is a "thriller in the form of a road movie," with the story rapidly advancing through pursuits and escapes across borders. In between, the sharp arguments and unexpected jokes between Ire and Solmin add a lively rhythm. The reflections of the novel become naturally clearer as the two run, argue, and save each other. The questions posed by "Olive Under the Sun" resonate with reality outside the novel. We clearly separate faith and fact, human and non-human, normal and abnormal, and easily judge those who exist outside those lines. We demand more explanations for lives that are difficult to understand and push aside unproven pain. However, it is not necessary to fully understand someone in order to respect them. Even if we cannot know everything, we can listen to their voice and make space for them to live alongside us. At that moment, the question of "Is that existence human?" transforms into the question of "What kind of humans will we choose to be?" That very question is why "Olive Under the Sun" must reach us now. Series Introduction Endless stories that you have yet to discover The expansion of stories continues. "Olive Under the Sun" was announced as the second series of the "Untold Originals" project, which means "endless stories that you have yet to discover," the brand slogan of CJ ENM's entertainment division. This project aims to present IP planned by CJ ENM and Blossom Creative as novels and then expand into video content. Other books in the series include Baek Myung-hoon's novel "The Strange Ballistics of Space Island Sabi," Kim Jung-hyuk's novel "Deleter: We Will Make It Disappear," and Chun Sun-ran's collection of stories "Moss Forest." The expansion of stories continues.